Ship of the Line: Pioneer's Dawn
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: Janus unhappy with how things are being handled in Sunnydale and elsewhere by the Powers That Be decides to intervene and in so doing changes the destiny and fate of an entire planet forever.
1. Chapter 1

**Ship of the Line: Pioneer's Dawn**

**Authors Note: This story is a response to Zaion's ship of the line challenge on Twisting the Hellmouth. I've been playing with a few different ideas on how to respond ever since the challenge was first posted but decided that this was probably my best option.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around with for my own purposes and make no profit from their use. So please no one sue me.**

* * *

**Chapter One**

**Somewhere**

**Sometime**

The being known as Janus frowned as he stood over his viewing pool watching events playing out in the mortal world. While his kind had little influence on the events taking place in the mortal realms these days, the result of a decree by the Creator brought about after they'd abused their powers one too many times, they could still look in on them. Which was precisely what he was doing now.

And he _really_ didn't like what he was seeing.

The Powers That Be and the Ascended were really making a mess of things; the Powers especially with that ridiculous idea they had for a balance between the forces of good and evil. The latter with their complete lack of interest in anything that went on with those they regarded as 'lower' beings, too afraid to act less they become as addicted to power as their Ori cousins had. Being the Roman god of time as well as doorways and change he could see which way things were going for the people of Earth under both their stewardship.

It wasn't good.

The Powers had their mortal champions locked in an endless battle against the supernatural, a battle that if things didn't change soon could have very dire consequences. He could already see the destruction of The Seed of Wonder and with it the temporary end of all forms of magic on the horizon – the tau lines were clear that that was a very probable future – which would be a bad thing. Though their rational minds didn't yet understand or accept it humans needed magic if they were to one day reach their full potential as a species and rise beyond simple ascension to energy beings – a potential his kind had nurtured since before the second iteration of the human race began recording time.

Thinking about it he wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't the Powers plan as they'd long hated humanities potential for magic – a potential the Alterans before them had never had – as it could eventually lead to them – and their precious balance – being rendered basically redundant. Plus the end of magic – at least for awhile as the Seed of Wonder would eventually regenerate itself – would let them do away with those other higher beings like the Elders, the Angels of Destiny and the Avatars who they saw as competitors, allowing the Powers to become even more powerful and domineering over the future of humanities destiny.

And if that wasn't bad enough the faction of humans known as Americans had reopened a door that would have been better left closed. Now they were out amid the stars far sooner than they ever should have been, facing threats that they weren't yet ready or even properly equipped to fight. Though they did not know it yet the Goa'uld System Lords were a minor threat compared to some of the things that prowled the universe. Any one of which could wipe out all life on Earth with no effort at all. While there were some who wanted to close the Stargate – though for hardly altruistic reasons as the true motivations of people like Senator Kinsey were an open book to him – it was already too late for that.

He was already aware that the System Lord Apophis was gathering his finest Jaffa army on two warships with which to attack and reconquer Earth. While he could see they'd repel the assault this time, and eventually make a peaceful contact with the powerful but steadily fading Asgard gaining a measure of protection against the egotistical, megalomaniacal parasites, it would only be a short term respite. Eventually they'd clash first with the Ori and then other higher dimensional threats and without magic, or some other advantage, they would ultimately fall no matter how hard they fought.

The problem was what he could do about it. How could he shake things up and hopefully make the events to come turn out differently? There wasn't much; like all the Old Gods he had little ability to affect the mortal world at all anymore. Certainly he couldn't just change things at his whim in the way he and the others had once been able to, which he had to admit had gone to their heads more than once and in the end prompted the Creator to step in and issue the decree to stop there interference.

It presented him with quite the conundrum.

After a couple of minutes thought a possible solution occurred to him. The Creators Edict wasn't absolute; the Creator hadn't been so cruel as to cut him and the others off entirely from the mortal realms, there was a way he could intervene. The fact that doing so could cause those over officious Powers That Be to have the celestial equivalent of a heart attack would just be, to borrow a delightful mortal phrase, icing on the cake.

His solution was simple.

In just under four hours – as humans reckoned time – it would be All Hallows Eve. Janus was fully aware that one of his few remaining mortal followers had travelled to the most active Hellmouth on Earth; his intent to cause chaos on Halloween night using enchanted costumes. Ethan Rayne had been a useful servant in the past, even if he did like the chaotic aspects of his power more than any of the other divine magic's that he could command. And now he would use that to his advantage as it would be easy to hijack Ethan's spell and repurpose at least part of it to accomplish his goal. He would have to be careful of course and make the change look to be a natural side effect of the chaos magic, so the Powers wouldn't be able to scream fowl, but it was doable. The repurposing of the spell would hurt Ethan a bit but that would be a small price to pay, and besides it would let him teach the chaos mage an important lesson, the lesson that he was primarily a god of change with chaos being only a small part of his aspect.

With the basics of a plan now in mind Janus waved a hand over the surface of the viewing pool, causing the image to change to show both Ethan Rayne's little shop and everything around it. _Now who to use,_ he thought gazing thoughtfully at the throng of young humans coming and going from the shop, determining just who he would use to hopefully change upcoming events for the better.

After a few moments of searching he spotted them.

One of the two current vampire slayers, Buffy Summers, the still unknowing witch Willow Rosenberg (he quickly made a mental note to have a word with the Elders about her, see if they could assign a whitelighter to assist her in learning magic properly as the girl was a powerhouse, and thus potentially the founding member of an entirely new magical bloodline, though she didn't know it yet) and his current favourite mortal, Alexander 'Xander' Harris. _Perfect,_ he thought smiling with both his faces at Alexander. That young man had been quite the topic of conversation amongst the various pantheons since the moment he'd successfully defied prophecy. Since then he'd kept a very close eye on him and directly intervened on his behalf when the Powers had wanted to punish him for disrupting their plans and thwarting one of their prophecies. In so doing by the ancient laws that bound celestial beings of all kinds, laws laid down by the Creator at the very beginning of the universe itself, he'd claimed him as a champion. And he was perfect for his purposes.

_Now just a few things to arrange,_ he thought as he extended a small tendril of power to adjust some events that were to take place inside Ethan's shop. The first change he made was making the noble woman dress the Slayer would have been originally drawn to subtly undesirable to her. At the same time he made someone else get the last toy gun in the shop which would force his champion to find something else, something that he would be really able to work with. With a final little tweak he pulled back and watched to see what happened next.

* * *

**Ethan's Costume Shop**

**Sunnydale, That Same Time**

Alexander 'Xander' Harris resisted, just, the impulse to swear as he noticed that all the toy guns had vanished from the shelves. There went his plan for a two dollar costume using Uncle Rory's old army combat fatigues. _Just my luck,_ he thought with a sigh.

"Something wrong, Xander," Buffy asked looking over at her best male friend.

"It's nothing, Buff," Xander answered, "it was just I was hoping to get away with not having to spend a lot as I already had a costume lined up for tonight. All I needed was one bit from here but now…"

"…it's gone," Buffy finished for him prompting an affirming nod.

"Yup now I have to find something else," Xander replied.

"Hmm well thanks to that troll, Snyder I also need to find something," Buffy commented, "maybe we can have a look together. And maybe together we can both convince Willow to wear something other than a ghost costume."

Xander snorted. "Buffy we're more likely to get pigs to fly than succeed in that," he pointed out, "both myself and Jesse – rest his soul – tried for years but in the end we ended up giving up."

Buffy inwardly winced when Xander mentioned his lost friend. She still felt guilty that she hadn't been able to prevent Jesse being turned as it was her own damned fault. She'd been so busy trying to escape her destiny as a Slayer at the time that she'd failed him, failed Willow and failed Xander who'd been forced to drive a stake into the heart of the monster who'd worn his friends face. Despite the blond-bimbo mask she sometimes wore she knew Xander was – to this day – haunted by Jesse's fate. And that it was one the things that drove him to fight the darkness, so no one else would know that pain, even though he had nothing really in the way of formal combat training.

Which now she thought about it she should really do something about. She made a mental note to have a word with Giles about it later, see if she and the Watcher couldn't come up with some sort of training regime for Xander and Willow. After all it would tear her apart if one of them were to be killed due to lack of training or worse turned, forcing her to slay them. So far they'd been lucky but no luck could last forever. She mentally kicked herself for what now seemed like such an obvious, and unforgiveable, oversight on her part. Xander and Willow would get some training even if she had to train them herself.

A hand suddenly waving in front of her face brought her out of her thoughts and she jumped. "Sorry I was miles away," she admitted smiling sheepishly at Xander.

"Anything we need to be worried about?"

Realising that he was worried that she'd just had one of her Slayer Dreams/Visions warning of some new big bad on the horizon she was quick to reassure him. "Nah I just realised something though we'll talk about it later," she said firmly wanting to talk to Giles before she broke the idea of training with Xander and Willow. "So Willow won't wear anything other than a ghost costume?"

"Nope though if you want to try your welcome to," Xander answered, "hell you might have more luck with her than we ever did since you're a girl as well."

"I'll go have a word with her," Buffy decided. "Will you be alright searching for a costume?"

"I'll be fine go speak to Willow," Xander replied, gaining a nod from the Slayer before she wandered off in search of the quiet, meek redhead. Xander watched her wistfully, wishing he could have her as a girlfriend, even after what she'd done to him at the Bronze. But she was with Angel now, a thought that made him shiver in distaste. What Buffy saw in Angel he really didn't know, after all cursed with a human soul or not the man wasn't really a man but a vampire and always would be. _I do wish she'd stake his ass and be done with it,_ he thought, _but now she carries on a relationship with the walking corpse. Which just proves one thing, girls are weird._

Putting Buffy's distasteful relationship with Angel out of his mind he turned to the serious purpose of finding a suitable costume for tomorrow night. He began looking through the various costumes on offer. There were a few costumes from DC comics present but unfortunately none of them were in his size which was a pity as it would have been cool to dress up as Batman, Superman or even Green Lantern for the night. With a sigh of resignation he moved on to the next rack of costumes.

There was no help here either. All the costumes were of the traditional Halloween variety, all ghosts, ghouls, witches, werewolves and vampires. While he might have considered wearing one of them in the past, now that he knew the truth of the supernatural world he wasn't about to touch any of them. Not even with a ten foot barge pole – even though a few looked to be in his size. So he moved on again.

And immediately paused for a moment in shock as he saw the contents of the next rack. The costumes were from a certain anime series he, Willow and Jesse used to watch when they'd been kids. Some of the costumes looked a bit newer, a bit more with a modern take but they were clearly all Robotech costumes. Grinning slightly he began looking through them, searching for one that was both for a male and in his size. One particular costume caught his eye and he carefully lifted it out, it was a white and red officers uniform with a high collared black jacket-like cloak over the top. He immediately recognised it as the uniform Rick Hunter had been wearing as one of the senior officers attached to the SDF3 for the Pioneer mission in the aborted Robotech II: Sentinels series. A small bag was attached containing a large black wig and a few other accessories including a replica of a SAL-9 Laser Pistol.

_Whoa who ever put this together obviously paid a lot of attention to detail. Which means its probably out of range of what I can afford,_ he thought before checking the price tag. And freezing in shock before checking again to make sure he wasn't imagining things. The entire get up was only fifteen dollars well within the range of what he could afford. A smug grin appeared on his face as he decided then and there that this would be his costume tonight.

"Found something Xander," Buffy suddenly asked from behind him, making him yelp slightly in surprise before spinning around to find Buffy and a dejected looking Willow standing there. Neither of whom had costumes yet.

"Don't do that," he replied, giving the blond haired Slayer a death glare for trying to give him a heart attack. Buffy winced and mouthed 'sorry' back, so he let her off the hook this time at least. "And yeah I have," he added holding up the uniform for his two female friends to see.

"No way," Willow exclaimed eyes widening as she recognised the uniform even though she hadn't quite been as into Robotech as Xander and Jesse had been. "I didn't realise they did Robotech costumes for Halloween."

"Ugh what's Robotech," Buffy asked and winced at the scandalised looks she got back off Xander and Willow.

After a few moments of stunned silence that she didn't know Xander decided to enlighten her. "Robotech was a 80's anime Buffy," he explained, "in which three different generations of people fought off repeated waves of alien invaders all after a special ultra-clean power source called protoculture."

"Oh," Buffy replied. "Well it's a very nice uniform, Xander. I'm glad one of us is having luck finding something to wear, nothing I've seen so far really catches my interest."

"They don't have any ghost costumes, Xander," Willow griped to her oldest friend – and not so secret crush.

Xander chuckled. "Well then," he said a slight smirk appearing on his face even as he mentally thanked whoever was in charge for making sure Willow wouldn't be able to dress up as a ghost this time. "Looks like you won't be able to dress up as a ghost for a change, Wills. There are plenty of other costumes in this rack why don't you guys take a look?"

"I suppose it couldn't hurt," Buffy admitted, "come on Willow."

"Alright," Willow replied, still deeply unhappy about having to find something else to wear instead of her traditional ghost costume. Still if she had to wear a costume it would be nice if it was from one of hers, Xander's and Jesse's favourite childhood shows. It would be a nice way to honour Jesse, who'd been gone nearly a year now, and maybe, just maybe, it would get Xander to notice her more as a woman.

"Great," Xander answered. "I'll go pay for this then meet you girls outside, deal?"

"Deal," Buffy and Willow agreed, speaking almost in unison. Xander grinned back before heading over with his costume to pay while his two fellow Scoobies resumed their search for costumes. _Maybe, _Xander thought as he arrived at the back of checkout queue, _despite Snyder's best efforts tonight won't be so bad after all._

* * *

**Summers Residence**

**A Short Time Later**

"So where are you meeting, Angel?"

Buffy smiled slightly at Willow's question even as she finished putting the final touches on the costume she'd acquired from Ethan's. Like Xander and Willow she'd been able to acquire the costume from the stock of Robotech costumes and, while she had no real idea just who the character Admiral Lisa Hayes was, she had to admit it looked good on her.

"Here after trick-or-treating moms going to be out so we'll have the house to ourselves," she replied before looking at the bathroom door. "Okay, Willow come on out. You can't hide in their all night."

"O…okay but promise you won't laugh?" Willow stammered back, her voice thick with nerves at being seen wearing what she was wearing. Buffy resisted, just, the impulse to roll her eyes not for the first time wondering just how Willow hoped to get Xander to notice her developing womanhood if she was nervous about appearing in anything remotely sexy.

"I promise," she assured the red head.

Slowly, nervously, the door opened and Willow – her very demeanour screaming meek, little mouse instead of the attractive woman she was maturing into – stepped out. She was dressed in a near strapless pale sky blue dress that hung down from an equally light blue chocker she wore around her neck. The dress hugged the contours of her body and showed off well the willowy figure was really starting to develop. The dress was open at the sides from her feet to just below her hips, showing surprisingly well proportioned legs. A translucent white silk mesh worn over her shoulders, white stiletto shoes and elbow length white gloves completed the ensemble. On her head in place of her normal red hair, Willow – like Buffy herself – was wearing a wig, though hers was black unlike the hazel brown of the one she was wearing – that framed her face and cascaded over her shoulders. _Wow,_ Buffy thought, _she dresses up nice. This Lynn Minmei character obviously knew how to dress to impress. Now if only I could convince her to dress up like this more often, she'd be giving Cordelia a run for her money in the attracting boys department._

"Wow," she said with a smile. "Willow you look a dish."

Willow frowned. "No I don't I look terrible," she replied looking down. "I wish they'd had a ghost costume I could have worn."

Buffy sighed. "Willow…" she started to admonish her friend for being so negative about her own appearance, but before any sound could emerge from her lips the doorbell sounded. "That will be, Xander. Cheer up, Wills you'll be fine. Trust me you'll blow, Xander away."

With that she turned and started to head downstairs to let their Xander-shaped friend in. Willow sighed and watched the Slayer leave, filling out the Sentinel's era uniform she was wearing very well indeed. She wished she could believe Buffy that this get up would really blow Xander away, and get him to notice her as a woman, but she wasn't at all sure that it would. But since Ethan's had lacked ghost costumes, the rack where they would have been having been empty indicating they'd probably already been sold out, she had no choice but to wear this get up. Mentally she tried to picture herself more as Minmei – as Minmei had been her favourite character in the Macross Saga though there had been a few times when she'd despaired at Minmei's seeming ignorance of Rick's attraction to her – than as herself. After all as Buffy had pointed out earlier Halloween was about pretending to be someone else.

It helped somewhat.

* * *

Reaching the bottom of the stairs Buffy sighed to herself. She so wished Willow wasn't so negative about her appearance all the time, wasn't so lacking in self-confidence. Though the latter was hardly a new thing for Willow, at least according to Xander, as despite her very high intelligence – or possibly because of it – Willow had lacked self-confidence for years. Though Xander had also said she'd gotten better recently, ever since they started helping her with her calling. _Maybe the training I'll give them both will help,_ she thought making another mental note to discuss the issue of getting her friends some defence training with Giles later.

Reaching the door she pushed those thoughts aside for now and opened it to let Xander in. "Admiral Hunter reporting for duty," Xander joked as he came in, prompting Buffy to blink as she saw him actually in the uniform he'd picked up. She had to admit he looked good in it, better than good in fact he looked well… hot in uniform. Though where had he acquired blue tinted contact lenses? She didn't remember seeing any in the accessory pack that came with the uniform. "Whoa, Buffy you look good," Xander commented. "You pull off Lisa well."

Buffy smiled. "Why thank you kind sir," she replied smirking as she shut the door. "Now just wait till you see, Willow," she added moving to the base of the stairs. "Come on, Willow come down."

"B…but," Willow yelled back.

"Wills if you don't come down we're going to be late," Buffy shot back, "you want Snyder to give us detention for a month?"

For a few moments there was silence, and Buffy began to fear that Willow would indeed chicken out of coming down, then Willow appeared at the top to the stairs and slightly unsteady in her stiletto shoes began descending. Buffy watched cautiously, knowing this was Willow's first time in stiletto's and knowing from her own experience that it was easy to fall in them, at least till you got used to wearing them.

The moment Willow reached the bottom of the stairs Xander blinked. _Wow, Willow is getting hot,_ he thought, _not that I'll ever date her, would be too much like trying to date a sister._ He of course recognised the outfit as being the one Lynn Minmei had worn during Robotech II: The Sentinels when she'd attended the wedding of Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes. "Wow Willow you look great," he said smiling.

Willow blushed slightly. "Ugh thanks, Xander," she replied, inwardly dancing in victory as she saw the look that briefly came into his eyes. Eyes that she suddenly noticed were not their normal colour. "You don't look so bad yourself. But what's with the blue eyes contacts?"

"Yup, the shop owner had them behind the counter for two dollars so I snapped them up. Think it really makes me look the part don't you?"

"It does," Willow agreed. "But we should get going."

"True we don't want to give the troll an excuse to chuck us all in detention," Xander agreed. "Though what he's got against the three of us I really don't know."

"Wish I knew," Buffy agreed as she picked up her house keys from a side table and slipped them into the pocket of her uniform, "maybe he's just mean. Come on times a wasting."

Xander and Willow both nodded in agreement. Being closest to the door Xander opened it and gestured for the girls to go first, then he followed them out making sure to close the door behind him. Then without further comment the three friends began making their way towards Sunnydale High School to pick up their charges for the evening.

* * *

**Back of Ethan's Shop**

**Two Hours Later**

Ethan Rayne smiled as he observed dusk give way to the deep darkness of a moonless night. After all his preparation it was time to begin the complex incantations that would summon the power of Janus and allow chaos to reign over Sunnydale. Quickly he closed the curtains over the back window and began carefully lighting the black candles around the room and the idol of Janus.

Once that was accomplished he knelt before the shrine and produced a small athame, the double edged steel knife engraved with a variety of mystical symbols, from his pocket and held the blade between his hands. Calmly he pressed both palms against the blades razor-sharp edges, wincing lightly at the slight stabs of pain it send shooting up his arms. Allowing the ceremonial knife to fall to the floor he gazed at his bleeding palms; the cuts were not that serious, certainly they were nothing a simple healing spell couldn't cure later, before getting started on the first part of the ritual to call upon the power of Janus.

"The world that denies thee, thou inhabit," he chanted dabbing the blood in his left hand with his right middle finger before drawing a line of blood over his right eyelid, "the peace that ignores thee, thou corrupt," he repeated the process with his left middle finger, right hand and left eyelid before drawing a bloody cross on his forehead, "chaos I remain, as ever, thy faithful, degenerate son."

In front of him the idol began to glow a soft green and the features on the side facing him changed into that of a monstrous male figure. He had succeeded in gaining the attention of his patron god. With a mounting sense of ecstasy he began the most important part of the ritual, the weaving of the spell.

"Janus, evoco vestram animam," the Latin incantation rolling easily off his tongue. "Exaudi meam causam. Carpe noctem pro consilio vestro. Veni, appare et nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas. Persona se corpum et sanguium commutandum est. Vestra sancta praesentia concrescet viscera. Janus! Sume noctem!"

The soft glow of the idol brightened and pulsed, before bursting outwards in a rippling wave of energy that rapidly swept over Sunnydale. As it touched those wearing the tainted costumes they're very existence changed and twisted. Ethan smiled maliciously as he felt the magic surge through him and sensed the spell beginning to do its work.

"Showtime," he muttered softly before gasping as pain suddenly blossomed in his chest. The magic from the idol was still surging through him, going on for far longer than he had anticipated. He could feel it starting to drain his own store of magical power, a store built up over all his years of faithful service to chaos. _Ugh something's not right did I make a mistake in the incantation or something,_ he thought doubling over as the sensation manifested as intense pain similar to that caused by a heart attack.

His vision began to grey out at the edges and, realising he needed to stop the spell now before whatever mistake he'd made in the casting killed him, he tried to reach out to knock the idol of Janus off its plinth and out of the ring. An act which would destroy the idol and cause the spell to collapse unable to sustain itself without a focus. But before he could do so the pain ceased and exhausted he fell over backwards, the world going dark as consciousness fled his body.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ship of the Line: Pioneer's Dawn**

_**Chapter Two**_

The wave of magic unleashed by Ethan Rayne swept across Sunnydale like a silent, invisible tsunami of arcane energy. As the wave encountered those costumes which had been previously enchanted by Ethan Rayne reality shifted and warped. Face paint became skin, masks became bone, muscle and flesh instead of simply moulded, coloured plastic while simultaneously altering – sometimes radically – the biology of the costumes wearer into that of whichever ghoul, demon or monster they had originally dressed as.

Through his viewing pool Janus observed the spells energies spreading, changing and warping reality according to the tenants of Ethan's spell. As the spell reached the Scoobies, and a few other individuals he'd chosen for this particular task, he reached out with his power and began to more precisely sculpt the outcome of the transformations as they began to take place. Before extending another tendril of his power reached across the dimensional barriers to a reality where the anime characters they were dressed as were real people.

In an instant he created a precise copy of one of the key ships of the series humanity in the dimension he was concerned with knew as Robotech. Precise down to the smallest detail, with one critical exception he didn't duplicate any of the crew as that was far beyond his abilities as only the Creator was capable of creating and duplicating souls. After making a few more minor changes to the ship, including the installation of a very specific piece of technology, it was ready. So with a quick tug of power he removed his copied ship from its reality and deposited it in a high orbit of the Scoobies dimensions Earth, adjusting its quantum and magical signatures as he did so, so no one would be able to tell the ship hadn't been created by the chaos spell cast by Ethan Rayne. _One final task,_ he thought quickly transporting a handful of craft from the bigger ship to the Sunnydale before he withdraw his power and sat back to watch.

And see what happened next.

* * *

**Sunnydale**

**A Few Moments Later**

Admiral Rick Hunter groaned softly as he opened his eyes to find himself lying flat out on an asphalt surface. _Ugh what hit me,_ he thought sitting up and looking around in incredulous confusion. He appeared to be on Earth, somewhere in small town America if he guessed right, but he didn't understand how that could be. The last thing he remembered was being aboard the SDF-3 _Pioneer_ as she orbited a newly liberated Tirol; he'd been with Lisa, the rest of the senior expedition members and Cabell to determine what was to happen to the planet now that it had been abandoned by the Robotech Masters before being devastated by the Regents attack. So how had he gotten back here to Earth, tens of thousands of light years from the Valvierre System and Tirol?

Deciding he would get no answers sitting here on his butt he stood up and gazed around. His confusion only grew as he recognized vehicles that hadn't existed since the Rain of Death, their manufacturing companies – like so much else – having been wiped from existence by the apocalypse Dolza had unleashed on the helpless planet. Had he somehow been transported back in time?

His apparent temporal dislocation wasn't the only thing that was strange about his current circumstances. There were aliens the likes of which he had never seen before running around causing absolute havoc. He couldn't help but jump as a car alarm went off behind him, startling him as it was a sound he hadn't heard since before the Rain.

"Okay Rick what have you been swept up in now," he said to himself. A loud roar from off to the right caught his attention and he turned to see what looked like a stereotypical werewolf coming towards him, salvia dripping from its fangs and feral yellow eyes alight with primal hunger and a fierce predatory intelligence. _You have got to be kidding me,_ he thought._ A werewolf! Or at least an alien that looks like a werewolf, and who looks like he wants to disembowel me right here. Better dissuade he/she/it whatever of that notion._ Without hesitation he withdrew his sidearm and fired a warning shot.

A bright whitish-blue beam of compressed, supercharged photons shot out from the SAL-9 Laser Pistol, striking the ground directly in front of the werewolf-like alien. Instantly and with a resounding crack the intense focused energy of the beam vaporised a chunk of asphalt throwing up a cloud of noxious smelling steam and smoke. Immediately the 'werewolf' ceased its approach emitting a confused puppy-like yap, it sounded so bizarre that he couldn't help but chuckle. Before firing another shot, deliberately aiming past. The lycanthrope winced as the laser passed close enough to its body for the creature to feel the intense heat of the beam against its fur covered skin as well as smell the ionisation trail left by the passage of the intense stream of energy.

Deciding that it didn't want to tangle with this thing firing at it, knowing instinctively that it would not survive a direct strike from one of the light beams, the werewolf emitted a howl of fury and defeat. Before turning and running off to seek some easier prey to sate its gnawing hunger. _Well at least it has brains enough to know tangling with a laser beam would be bad for its health,_ Rick thought watching the seemingly mythical creature retreat, tail metaphorically tucked between its legs.

"Rick, Rick help," a familiar female voice abruptly called from behind him, prompting him to spin around to see Minmei running up – dressed in the same stylish dress she'd worn when she'd sung at his and Lisa's wedding – a host of child-sized monsters – for lack of a better description – chasing after her. Without hesitation he acted, raising his sidearm and firing at one of the leading creatures threatening the singer/actress/somewhat little sister. The laser slammed into the creatures' torso with immense force producing a puff of smoke and flame from where its clothing was hit, even as the red-scaled, horned alien was knocked onto its ass, emitting a roar of combined surprise, incredulity, fury and pain.

The other creatures immediately froze. While the one he'd hit slowly, painfully picked itself up off the floor a vivid black smudge on its scaly chest showing where the beam had hit it. Rick blinked in surprise as a laser strike like that should have killed it outright unless its skin was some kind of natural armour, though even then the beam should have burned through. After all like all directed energy sidearms issued to the RDF/REF the SAL-9 had been designed with lessons learned from the study of Zentraedi sidearms in mind. There was no armour known to exist that the beam couldn't penetrate. _Until now that is,_ Rick thought as the wounded creature seemed to decide to – rather than risk another extremely painful laser hit – exercise the better part of valour. Emitting a roar it turned and began running away, the other creatures following it but not before shooting fearful glances at the SAL-9 Rick was still holding.

"Minmei are you alright," he asked, looking over his one-time crush turned dear friend for any sign of injuries. Thankfully aside from being visibly frightened by the circumstances that they found themselves in – which he could well understand – Minmei seemed unharmed.

"I'm fine, Rick," Minmei answered blushing slightly at the attention. Though she had long since come to accept that she'd lost her chance with Rick when it came to love – both due to her own stupidity and interference from her anti-military nut cousin Kyle – to Lisa Hayes she knew Rick still cared a great deal about her. And vice-versa as Rick was someone she could talk to without worrying about the media somehow getting wind of it. "What's going on?" she asked. "One minute I'm at the reception after your marriage then I'm here, wherever here is."

Rick frowned. "Minmei, that was eighteen months ago," he answered.

Minmei gasped. "Eighteen months? You're joking right?" Rick shook his head, he definitely wasn't joking in fact he wished he was. "Isn't time travel supposed to be impossible?"

"Supposedly but then how often since the initial arrival of the SDF-1 did we see the impossible become possible."

Minmei acknowledged that point with a nod. "What are we going to do? How are we going to get back?" she asked only just supressing the impulse to panic.

"I don't know," Rick admitted, "but one things for sure we need to find some shelter, given what's going on," he gestured to the chaos around them, "staying here on the street would not be a good idea." Minmei nodded in agreement and felt her shoulders drop in relief trusting Rick to look after her as he always had.

Abruptly the communicator on his left wrist chimed and vibrated. After slipping his sidearm back into his belt holster he checked the offending device, frowning as he did so as no one in this apparent time should be able to access it. The moment the screen came to life he smiled slightly as he realised that neither himself nor Minmei were alone. There were a number of additional RDF/REF identification transponders broadcasting, with one broadcasting brighter indicating either a rendezvous point or an emergency locator beacon – the watches computer wasn't sophisticated enough to differentiate the two signals, especially at this range.

"Looks like we're not only ones who've been transported back to whatever year this is," he said to Minmei. "I'm picking up eight additional location beacons. Including one set up as a rendezvous point."

Minmei smiled happy to learn that despite the circumstances they found themselves in, however they'd been sent back in time, that they weren't alone. Others were here as well. Her smile turned into a frown as she saw Rick scowling slightly, clearly puzzled by something he was seeing. "What is it, Rick," she asked.

"Something strange three of the signals are moving incredibly quickly," Rick answered, "they're heading right towards us. They should come into this street any second now." He looked in the direction the signals would appear from, Minmei followed his gaze and waited.

After a moment three high-tech looking motorcycles, two a soft grey colour the other a quite vibrant red, came around a bend and entered the street. At the sight of them Rick's eyes widened in a combination of shock and recognition. _Cyclones,_ he thought incredulous as seeing working models of the infantry mecha meant to replace the current Tornado battle bike which, while a powerful machine and capable of limited mechamorphosis it, wasn't powerful enough to face enemies as powerful as the Invid in infantry combat, _but that's impossible. They're still in the early prototype stage of development so how can these three be here?_

A marked suspicion began to grow in his mind, even as the group of veritech motorbikes slowed and came to a stop. They were being ridden by an eclectic group of people if ever there was one. Two of the riders were males, one wearing the kind of durable, functional clothing that had become popular in the years since the Rain of Death with people who lived in more remote areas without or with only limited access to one of the major population centres like New York which had escaped the Zentraedi bombardment or those established afterwards like Monument City. The other wearing an REF uniform that looked similar to the ones they'd been thinking of introducing to the Expeditionary Force and the whole RDF – replacing the slightly more flamboyant ASC inspired uniforms that were the current standard. Both men were wearing an armour over the top of their clothes that looked like a hard version of the current CVR-2 flexi-armour REF infantry and veritech fighter pilots wore. Like the Cyclone itself he recognised it as being CVR-3 armour, which like the mecha it was meant to work with, was still undergoing R&D testing.

The other two riders were girls. One with long honey blond hair, wearing a red bodysuit with white highlights. Like the two men she was wearing a hard body armour over the top but while the boys armour was a mixture of the normal cream, grey and olive tones hers was red. The final rider, who was on the back of the uniformed man's Cyclone with her arms wrapped securely around him, had pinkish red hair and was wearing a brown jacket with a light blue tank top underneath and jeans.

For a moment more nothing happened and Rick got the distinct impression that they were as surprised to see him as he was to see them. Which he could kind of understand as from the uniform the one man was wearing, and the Cyclones themselves, they probably came from a point further down the timeline than he and Minmei did. Finally though the uniformed man who, from his position in the pack of bikes, appeared to be the leader flipped up the translucent blue helmet visor revealing the face of a young man in his mid-twenties.

"Admiral Hunter? Miss Lynn? Is that you?" the man asked a note of equal parts uncertainty and suspicion in his voice. Rick carefully studied him noticing the unit patch – which he understandably didn't recognise but which – a badge that indicated one of the Martian facilities and the rank insignia of a lieutenant commander. _Bit young for the rank though I can't say anything about that since I was a full commander and leader of Skull Squadron by the time I was twenty-four,_ he thought.

"Yes," Rick confirmed, "and you are?"

"Lieutenant Commander Scott Bernard, 21st Combat Wing, Mars Division sir," the man answered.

"Hey Scott," the other man said. "Any idea what's going on here yet? First we all wake up here wherever here is and now this?"

"I have no idea, Rand," Scott admitted.

"We've all travelled in time," Rick explained, "as to my uniform well that's easily explained as from Commander Bernard's uniform and your mecha you're from a future point in the timeline than myself and Minmei. For me the year is 2024."

" 2022 for me," Minmei added helpfully keeping close to Rick as she wasn't quite sure what to make of these strangers yet, though the fact that at least one was another soldier was comforting.

"We're from 2044," Rand admitted, "how did we get here? Wherever and whenever here is?"

"I have no idea exactly where we are but I have a good idea when look around," Rick answered. "From the style of these vehicles we're in the mid nineteen nineties, just before the Global Civil War really kicked off and before the arrival of the SDF-1. And if I had to guess from the air temperature we're somewhere in what were the southern states of the old United States of America."

"How can you tell, sir," Scott asked curious.

"Because I grew up in Northern California. Until I was nineteen I never left for more than a few days to go to various amateur flying competitions or performances of pop's air circus," Rick replied before smiling slightly nostalgic as he remembered to his days with his father's flying circus. He'd been so innocent back then, so naïve and more immature than he'd liked to admit. Had still been when Roy had sent him that fateful invitation to attend the commissioning ceremony of the SDF-1, an invitation that had changed his life so dramatically and irrevocably; after all if he'd not attended he'd have never become a soldier and would never have met his beloved wife.

He mentally shook himself, there would be time to get nostalgic later. "So who are your other companions Commander Bernard," he asked.

"Oh right sorry sir," Scott answered cheeks colouring in embarrassment as he realised he'd not really introduced everyone. He gestured over his shoulder at the oddly quiet pink-haired woman. "This is Ariel, the motor mouth by there is Rand."

"Hey," Rand objected.

"Pretty apt description for you," Rook commented smirking, which earned her a glare from the wisecracking Argentinean. A glare which had absolutely no effect on the blond haired half-Zentraedi woman. She looked over at Rick and had to admit he looked very handsome though she couldn't say she cared for the somewhat flamboyant uniform though it did fit the uniforms favoured at the time he and Minmei apparently came from. "I'm Rook by the way, Rook Bartley."

Rick raised an eyebrow. "Any relation to Kyle Bartley?" he asked curious as last time he'd seen the former pilot he'd just gotten married to an ex-Zentraedi warrior named Vala Norri.

"My father," Rook confirmed.

"Sir are you the source of the signal we were following," Scott asked, "after we woke up we picked up an REF homing signal and started heading towards it."

"No that's coming from somewhere over in that direction," Rick pointed down the street. "We were just about to head there ourselves."

"Oh, well hop on we can all go," Scott suggested.

"Sticking together would be a good idea," Rick agreed. "Alright Minmei why don't you hop on behind Ms Bartley. If that's alright with Ms Bartley."

"No problem," Rook agreed.

"No problem giving a lift here either," Rand added seeing the sense in them all sticking together at least till they figured out just what the hell was going on here. And why himself, Rook, Scott and Ariel were the only ones of their group here. Since they'd woken up here, wherever it was, there had been no sign of Lancer, Annie or Lunk nor had they responded when attempts were made to contact them via radio. Something which had set mental alarm bells ringing for all of them.

"Commander Bernard I'll send you the coordinates to the rendezvous point," Rick stated activating his watch and forwarding the coordinates of the rendezvous point to the navigation system of Commander Bernard's Cyclone.

"I've got them sir," Scott confirmed as they flashed up on his control panel's mini-map screen. A screen he really didn't have much chance to use while battling the Invid as they'd shot down all the RDF's GPS satellites after they drove the remains of the ASC naval forces that had beaten the Robotech Masters away from Earth. Thus he hadn't thought to check for the beacon coordinates on that particular system, assuming it could link to the more primitive and less accurate GPS systems of this time.

"Then we better get going," Rick decided before escorting Minmei over to Rook's Cyclone and helping her climb on. A few moments later he was climbing onto the other Cyclone behind Rand.

Seconds later they were all on their way again, racing towards the homing beacon all hoping they would at last get some answers as to what they were all doing here.

* * *

**Stargate Command**

**Cheyenne Mountain Complex**

**That Same Time**

Major General George Hammond was lost in thought as he stood by the briefing room windows gazing down at the silent, dark Stargate. Just over five hours ago Colonel O'Neill and the rest of SG-1 had, in defiance of the Congressional shutdown order currently on the SGC, overridden the security systems and travelled through the gate to a set of coordinates that Dr Jackson had brought back from an alternate reality. A reality in which Earth was being steadily bombed into oblivion by the forces of the Goa'uld System Lord Apophis in retribution both for the trouble they'd caused Apophis personally and the death of Supreme System Lord Ra.

An attempt to send SG-2 and SG-3 to retrieve them, so that both Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter could face court martial for their blatant defiance of orders, had failed. The coordinates had refused to lock a second time. At first they'd thought that Captain Carter had left a little viral surprise for them in the dialling computers, she had after all written the software they ran on and would thus know how to breach the firewalls and circumvent the anti-viral safeguards without being obvious about it, to prevent them following them. But that had soon been ruled out when they'd been able to successfully dial the Alpha Site. Which meant that for some reason Doctor Jackson's coordinates simply were no longer valid and he didn't want to think what that could mean.

"Sir," a voice said from behind him as the reflection of Master Sergeant Norman Walter Harriman appeared in the ballistic glass.

"Yes," George asked turning to look at the other man. Immediately he noticed the grim look on the other man's face which instantly set all manner of alarm bells ringing in his head.

"Sir near orbit radar reports that a large anomalous contact has just appeared in the sky above Northern California," Harriman reported. "There was no warning, one minute it wasn't there then it was. Whatever it is it's in a geostationary orbit directly over a small town called Sunnydale."

"Any idea what it is," George queried a look of concern appearing on his face as he spoke.

"We believe it to be a ship. A very big ship. However we did not pick up any sign of the vessel approaching, which means it's probably been there for a while just cloaked somehow."

"How big a ship?"

"From the radar reports the vessel is over seventeen hundred meters long and five hundred and eighteen meters wide. We've tried to contact them but so far there has been no response from the crew. We're trying to get a hold of one of the observatories in the Sierra Nevada's to see if they can get a look. Also I'm afraid that's not the only bit of bad news that I have."

_Never rains but it pours hey George, _he thought. "Go on," he said to prompt the other man knowing he wasn't going to like whatever else he had to say. Hell he didn't like what he'd heard already; that a ship just over five times the length and just under seven times the width of one of the Navy's Nimitz-class supercarriers had mysteriously appeared in orbit, without any warning whatsoever, was cause for great concern.

Especially as it wouldn't take long for someone on the ground to spot it – a ship that big would be easy to see from the surface with any half decent pair of binoculars – and tip off the media. Which could at best start a media feeding frenzy about first contact and at worst lead to a public panic. Neither outcome was something the US Government and Military would want to deal with just now; or ever which was why they'd kept the existence of the Stargate a secret even after the threat of the Goa'uld became known.

"Deep space radar has picked up two large blips passing Saturn, projections indicate that they're on a direct course to Earth. Radar calculates that at their current rate of speed the contacts will reach planetary orbit in just under four hours. NASA's repositioning Hubble now so we can get a better look at them."

_Oh shit,_ George thought looking away from him, back down at the Stargate, a cold knot of dread forming in his stomach. He had no idea what the first contact could be, though it was almost certain to be a ship, but he had a very good idea what the incoming ships were, who they belonged to and why they were coming to Earth. For a moment he wondered if the two groups were connected but then decided against it, as if the first ship over California had been Goa'uld then they would already be under attack; from that position the first ship could effortlessly decimate the most populous state in the union before moving on to wipe out the entire West Coast all the way up to British Columbia and Alaska. Hell if that ship had been there for a long time, just hidden by a Star Trek-style cloaking device, and had had hostile intentions they would likely have all been dead long ago.

"I guess Doctor Jackson is lucky," he said softly.

"Why's that sir," Harriman asked curious.

"That he's not going to be here to see his nightmare come true a second time," George replied, before turning and marching back into his office and picking up the red phone. A phone that connected straight to the White House. "This is Major General Hammond. I need to talk to the President."

"Yes sir please stand by," a White House operator responded immediately. After a moment there was a click and President Marcel came on the line.

"Yes General Hammond what is it?"

"Sir we have a very serious problem."

* * *

**Sunnydale**

**California, A Few Minutes Later**

Riding on the back of the Cyclones, in spite of the chaos that seemed to be reigning over this small town, it didn't take the assembled Robotech soldiers and the members of Scott Bernard's resistance cell long to reach the source of the homing signal. Twice during their journey some of the various alien creatures had tried to accost them, only for a few well aimed warning shots from the proton cannon on Rand's Cyclone to persuade them that they were too much trouble to attack. Which was something Rick was thankful for as he climbed off the back of the aforementioned Cyclone.

The source of the signal appeared to be coming from within an area walled off with white plasterboards like those used on construction sites prior to the Rain of Death. Which from the signs and warnings was what was beyond the barrier. Both the display on Rick's watch/wrist computer and the navigational systems on the three Cyclones confirmed that to be the case.

"How to do we get in," Rand asked seeing nothing but a wall of white boards covered in various signs and warnings though he wasn't that familiar with their meanings. After all in the time he came from building on a large scale by anyone other than the Invid – who'd been building more and more hives as their numbers increased before Ariel convinced the Regis to leave Earth to its rightful inhabitants – like this had been completely non-existent, most people being barely able to keep their homes from falling down. "Switch to battle armour and flyover?"

"That would be a bit of a waste of energy and we can't afford to deplete the power cells on your Cyclones too much given the protoculture matrix won't even be on the planet yet," Rick pointed out, "there will be an entrance somewhere around here we just need to find it."

Without waiting for a response he began looking for the entrance. He quickly found it took metal mesh covered gates bound together by a bolt along with a thick heavy duty chain and padlock. "Over here," he called back to the others while taking his laser pistol from its quick-draw holster on his belt. A single well-aimed blast was all it took to slice through the links of the chain. With the tension broken and the weight of the padlock pulling on the other end the chain unwound and dropped to the deck with a clank of metal. A moment later he had the bolt pulled back and the gates were opening on very squeaky hinges.

"Someone's bound to have heard that," Scott commented as he felt Ariel slip off the back of his Cyclone already knowing what he was going to do next. A flick of a switch and the Cyclone began to change, standing up quickly he felt it wrapping around him forming into a complex suite of powered armour that made a single modern infantry soldier more powerful and dangerous than an entire battalion of pre-Robotech troops even with armour support. From behind him he heard Rook persuade Minmei to get off before she and Rand copied his action.

The faint whirling sound of mechamorphosis behind him had Rick spinning around, just in time to see the three Cyclones shift into armour mode making each of the riders look like a vastly scaled down, but still extremely dangerous, battloid. It was the same sort of principle the Tornado had worked with though nowhere near as well hence why Dr Lang and the Robotech Research Group had started Project: Cyclone. He couldn't help but smile slightly as the part of him that would always be the cocky pilot said 'cool' and 'I have so got to try that'. "Good thinking," he said aloud a clear note of approval in his voice.

"Sir might I suggest we scout inside first," Scott asked.

"Good idea commander proceed."

"Yes sir," Scott acknowledged before leading Rand and Rook into the building site. It seemed to be abandoned but only temporarily as everywhere he could see stacks of building materials covered in tarpaulins or still encased in plastic wrapping to protect it from the elements. Cautious they moved deeper inside.

They soon found the source of the homing signal they'd been following.

Sitting on a large concrete slab in the centre of the site were six Alpha fighters with Beta fighters attached to the back. All six Alpha's had their cockpits open waiting for pilots to climb aboard, the Beta's with the doors to their small passenger compartments open. There was however no sign of the pilots and according to a check of the thermal emissions all the veritechs were cold, like they'd been here for a while long enough for the heat signatures of their engines to dissipate completely.

"Sir," Scott said activating his comm. system. "The sites clear and we've found the source of the beacon signal."

"What is it," Rick's voice responded.

"There are six Alpha/Beta combination fighters here," Scott replied "the fighter in the leader position is the one broadcasting the homing signal."

"Any sign of the pilots?"

"No sir, and these fighters' engines are completely cold. They've been here awhile."

"Very strange why bring a group of fighters here then leave them completely unattended," Rick commented. "This mystery just keeps growing and growing. We'll be right there in a few moments. In the meantime get in one of the fighters and see if you can access the flight computer."

Even though he knew the admiral wouldn't be able to see him Scott nodded. "Yes sir," he acknowledged before signing off and going down onto his knees, before giving the command for the Cyclone to disengage from armour mode.

"Why do you want to access the flight computer, Scott," Rand asked watching his blue haired friend stand back up clad only in his CVR armour now, before pulling the Cyclone upright into its normal motorcycle form.

"The fighter's computer should contain a record of where these veritechs came from and how long they've been here," Scott replied walking up to the closest Alpha and hopping in before beginning to tap away at the controls.

"Oh yeah I forgot about those," Rand answered mentally kicking himself for forgetting it, the flight data records were one of the first things Scott and Lancer had taught him and Rook about when they'd taught them how to fly Alpha fighters. And not just how to fly them; but fly them in combat and make full use of their mechamorphic abilities and vast arsenals of weaponry.

Scott made a surprised noise. "That's odd," he said scowling at the screen.

"What is it?" Rook asked.

"There is no data here," Scott replied, "navigational records are completely blank beyond stored coordinates that is. It's almost like the navigational computers not been used, power usage records, engine power and performance records everything is blank. It's like this fighters never been used before."

"So what it just appeared here like we did," Rand asked.

"Very likely," Scott agreed before frowning. "And it looks like us and these fighters aren't the only ones caught up in whatever this is. Tactical navigation is picking up an identification transponder on a fleet frequency – it's coming from low orbit."

"Can you tell who it is," Rick asked as he came up with Minmei and the still silent Ariel in tow, clearly having heard what he'd just said.

"Yes sir I can," Scott confirmed checking the screens. "It's the SDF-3."

* * *

**Authors Note: Another chapter bites the dust. The first groups have met up but where is Buffy/Lisa? Who else has been affected by the spell? How is their presence going to affect the upcoming attack on Earth by Apophis? You'll have to tune in next time to find out. Evil aren't I… lol.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ship of the Line: Pioneers Dawn**

Authors Notes: I think it should be obvious by now that the Stargate elements of this story are set at the end of season one beginning of season two of Stargate SG-1 however I have had to tweak some of the events and timings of the season two premier episode The Serpent's Lair for story telling purposes in both this chapter and following chapters as well as clean up some discontinuities with later developments in SG-1. For example this time Teal'c recognised that they were aboard a Ha'tak-class ship, he is also capable of piloting the ship as other Jaffa have been seen to do even before the fall of the System Lords.

As always with my Stargate fics conversation in bold is a Goa'uld speaking while conversation in bold italics is a symbiote talking to their host. Now then without further ado let's get on with the chapter.

Disclaimer: I still do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement, so please no legal action I have no money to give anyone.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

**Elsewhere In Sunnydale**

**That Same Time**

Admiral Lisa Hayes-Hunter swore colourfully as she ducked down behind a convenient dumpster, just in time to avoid a thrown bottle that crashed into the wall and shattered. Showering the wall with its contents that from the smell was alcohol.

Peering cautiously around the dumpster Lisa noticed that strangely none of the three black robed individuals she could see seemed to be carrying any weapons. Instead the fireballs and what looked like balls of blue energy seemed to just appear in their hands. But then again it was just the latest in a series of bizarre events that had happened to her in the last half or so, ever since she'd woken up here seemingly transported through time and space to what appeared to be Earth – and an Earth that from the style of the architecture and the vehicles was a pre-Rain of Death Earth, possibly even a pre-robotechnology Earth given most of the vehicles seemed to have internal combustion engines – which had been phased out in favour of hydrogen fuel cells during the decade between the arrival of the alien ship that became the SDF-1 and the coming of the Zentraedi to retrieve said ship.

Quite how this had happened she had absolutely no idea. The last thing she remembered was being aboard the SDF-3 _Pioneer_ in the quarters she shared with Rick after a long, hard day of discussions about what to do with Tirol now that the Regent and his Invid had been booted off the planet – but not before leaving much of the planet in ruins. As she recalled she'd been in bed, cuddled up to her beloved husband, and drifting off to sleep.

Next she was here, wherever and whenever here, was. Thankfully whatever had transported her here had dressed her in a clean uniform it would have been extremely embarrassing – not to mention more than a little chilly – to have been stark naked when she'd woken up on that pavement.

Awakening to a scene that she could only describe as being absolute pandemonium with strange alien creatures, which looked for all the world like various goblins and demons from common mythology, running amok. A few of them had tried to attack her, thankfully though she'd found her uniform also included the standard SAL-9 laser pistol sidearm – along with bizarrely enough a sharp wooden stake in one pocket – which had made scaring the mostly pint sized aliens/demons relatively easy. A few beams whizzing past their ears – or whatever it was they heard with – had been enough to send even the most ferocious of the little monsters running with their metaphorical tails firmly tucked between their legs.

With her safety secured she'd been able to turn her attention to her vibrating watch computer. To find that she apparently wasn't the only one to have been somehow brought back here to the past. Others were here as well, seemingly scattered all over the place, and that someone had set up a rendezvous point. Unable to establish radio communication, presumably because she was out of range, she'd started heading in the direction of the rendezvous.

Which had brought her to her current situation as she'd been about to turn down another street when the three men who'd chased her in here, men whose features seemed oddly distorted with glowing yellow eyes filled with a truly feral intelligence, overly pronounced brow ridges and fangs of all things. Instinctively knowing that whatever these things were they a) weren't really men and b) meant to kill her she'd turned and run into this alleyway. Only to find it was a dead end.

Lisa growled slightly as she heard the three men-things laughing at having gotten her cornered. _Oh no you don't you're not going to get me without a fight_ she thought drawing her pistol and pointing it right at the man on the right.

Without hesitation she fired.

Instantly the blue-white lance of supercharged compressed photons that made up a protoculture-fuelled laser beam shot out and smashed into the man faster than he could blink let alone react. What happened next was truly shocking.

The man-thing she'd hit convulsed as the laser ripped into his body, before emitting a truly unearthly scream of pain as he erupted into flames. The inferno enveloping him with such a speed and ferocity that it was almost like someone had doused him in petrol or some other such accelerant. _I know lasers and particle beams are hot but they shouldn't do that,_ she thought as before her surprised eyes the immolated man-thing seemed to implode – leaving a small pile of smouldering dusty ash on the floor.

For a few seconds the other two men-monsters gaped in shock at where their fellow had once been, the laser-induced manner of his fiery death having taken them by total surprise. Allowing Lisa a few critical seconds to shake off her own surprise at what had just taken place, aim at the man or whatever he was to the left and fire. As with the first person she'd hit he convulsed, then screeched in agony before dissolving first into flames then smouldering dust-like ash. The third emitted a deep, animal like growl.

"You killed Jake and Steve, I'm going to drain you dry for that, Slayer," he snarled but before he could move another laser blast, this time from somewhere off to the side, somewhere Lisa couldn't see, struck him. As with the other two the man-thing screamed in agony as the blast of energy drilled into his body instantly setting clothing and flesh aflame. In an instant he was gone reduced to a third small mound of ash on the floor.

Lisa sighed in relief and stood up keeping her pistol handy, just in case, cautiously moved towards the front of the alleyway. Just as a familiar blue-haired figure appeared a laser pistol identical to hers held in its hand. Even in the gloom of the alleyway she could easily make out the fact that the figure was both male and wearing glasses.

Which meant it could only be one person as their was only one man she knew who had blue hair and wore glasses. "Nice timing, Max," she said stepping out into the light and holstering her pistol.

"You're welcome, Lisa," Captain Maximillian Sterling answered, holstering his own pistol. "Now do you mind telling me what in the name of space is going on around here? One minute I'm getting ready to go on duty the next I'm here wherever and whenever here is. And what we're those things? Why'd they call you Slayer?"

"I wish I knew, Max," Lisa admitted, "I have no more idea what's going on here than you do as like you one minute I was in mine and Rick's quarters on the SDF-3 next I was here. Somehow we've been transported through both time and space back here to Earth, a pre-robotechnology Earth if I'm not mistaken, and we're not alone."

"You noticed the signals as well huh," Max commented not surprised, Lisa always tended to be on the ball with these things.

"Yeah I did. I was heading in that direction when those things, whatever they were, attacked me." As she finished speaking Lisa checked her watch to determine just how far from their destination they were, it only seemed to be a few more streets away. She also noticed that a number of signals had already arrived at the location with only two still further away – one of whom seemed to be only a few feet away.

"Looks like we're going to have company," she said gesturing to the entrance to a side street a moment before a tall blond-haired man wearing one of the old-style flight suits stepped out. Lisa and Max both recognised him instantly and froze in shock, even as the man turned to look at them – doing a double take of his own at the sight of them.

"Lisa is that you," Commander Roy Fokker asked gaping as he saw Lisa dressed in an unfamiliar red and black uniform with gold highlights, a uniform with the stars of a full admiral on the collar. A man he vaguely recognised as being a member of Rick's Vermillion Squadron was standing behind her, dressed in a similar uniform though his was primarily blue and white with black highlights. He was wearing the rank insignia of a captain.

"Roy Fokker?" Lisa exclaimed her brain busily interrogating her eyes about the impossible sight before her. "Impossible… you're… you're dead."

"Nah ugh not me," Roy replied frowning. "I'm alive and what the hell is going on? What's with the different uniforms?"

"You must have been caught in whatever this is just like we were," Lisa mused, "Roy this is going to sound strange but could you tell us what year you think it is?"

Roy scowled. "What year?" he repeated looking at Lisa as if she'd gone nuts.

"Humour me."

"Okay its 2011, March 7th if you want to be precise," Roy replied, and saw the look the two exchanged, which sent a shiver of worry down his spine. "It's not 2011 for you is it?"

"No for me it's 2024," Lisa replied.

"2025 for me," Max added.

"Huh you're from different times?" Roy exclaimed "guess that explains the uniforms and why you've got admirals stars on your collar Lisa. And why you thought…" His voice trailed off for a moment as understanding came. "I bought it didn't I?" he asked a cold feeling of dread forming in his stomach.

"Yes," Lisa admitted.

"Jesus. Okay, okay how did we all get here," Roy asked putting the news that he'd died on the mental back burner for now, there would be time to think about, or rather brood about, that later.

"I have no idea," Lisa admitted, "last thing I remember before waking up here was being in mine and Rick's quarters. Max remembers being just about to go on duty."

"Wait, wait you and Rick?" Roy queried stunned. "You're together?"

"I guess that would be a bit surprising to you," Lisa admitted. "Especially as Rick was still chasing Minmei in your time, but we're more than together in mine. Rick's not my boyfriend anymore or even my fiancée… he's my husband."

"I… I see," Roy stammered back mind going numb with shock. Oh he'd suspected for months that there was something between Rick and Lisa. The sexual tension between them – that had tended to manifest in blazing rows often over the comm. to the amusement of both listening pilots and the bridge bunnies – had been obvious to everyone on the SDF-1. Well except the persons involved that was; Lisa had kept insisting that Rick was cocky, immature and undeserving of the responsibility placed on his shoulders as a squadron leader, while Rick had continued to accuse her of being an inflexible old sourpuss. Though to be fair they hadn't argued quite so vehemently since their escape from that Zentraedi battleship.

But he wouldn't have in a million years expected them to acknowledge the truth about how they really felt and act on that truth, as in his experience both Rick and Lisa had stubborn streaks bigger than even the largest Zentraedi battleship. Said stubborn streaks, combined with the fact that both had strong alpha personalities that had to have the last word in an argument, kind of made it hard to believe that they'd ever admit that they loved each other let alone get married.

"Commander Fokker." Lisa's voice in full command tone jolted him out of his stunned state and he reflexively moved to stand at attention. "Stand easy you can go into shock over mine and Rick's exact relationship later right now we have other more pressing matters to attend to."

"You're right I'm sorry," Roy answered mentally shaking off the last of the shock-generated mental cobwebs. "So we've all travelled in time?"

"And space but yes," Max answered. "My self and Lisa were aboard the SDF-3 orbiting a distant planet called Tirol. Though don't ask how we all got here neither of us has any idea."

"We should continue towards the rendezvous point on our watch computers," Lisa said firmly deciding on a course of action. "Maybe some of those already there will have some real idea what's actually going on around here."

"Maybe we should try contacting whoever's there," Max suggested. "We should be close enough now for the radios in our watches to make contact."

"Good point," Lisa agreed knowing that while the radio in a comm. watch/wrist computer was short range – aboard ship or in groundside REF facilities long range communication was achieved through internal signal relays – they should be close enough to make contact now. She raised her watch and decided to try. "This is Admiral Lisa Hayes to whoever is at the rendezvous point being detected on our wrist computers," she said formally using her maiden name as she always did in her professional life – it prevented confusion in the ranks given Rick was also an admiral albeit one rank below her, "if anyone can hear me, please respond on this channel."

"Lisa," a familiar voice answered as the screen changed to show Rick. "You got caught up in this as well huh?" A concerned look appeared on his face as he noticed her somewhat flushed features. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Rick don't worry. And yes I did get caught up in this time space distortion whatever it is," Lisa replied smiling feeling more than a little relieved that whatever else was going on she'd be facing it alongside her beloved husband. "What about you are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Where are you and are you alone?"

"I'm about a mile or two from your current location. And I've got two others with me. One is Max the other… Rick you'd better brace yourself… the other person here with me is Roy." She wasn't surprised when Rick gasped before looking down and away at the mention of Roy. She knew full well how much Rick still missed him, how much pain Roy's death still caused him and how much suddenly knowing he was here alive again would shake him up.

After a few moments Rick seemed to pull himself together and looked back up, though not immediately at her. She could see his lips moving as he spoke to someone who was present with him but lip reading had never been her strongest skill. She got the vague impression that he was giving somebody some orders but couldn't read his lips well enough to determine exactly what orders he was giving. After a few moments he nodded, clearly acknowledging something presumably a response to whatever orders he'd given, before looking back at her. Though his face was composed she could see a tell tale shine in his expressive blue eyes that indicated he was holding back his emotions – especially those that would have been triggered by a living, breathing Roy being here.

"Lisa I'm sending some people to meet you and bring you here," he said his voice admirably level. "They're on the backs of production model Cyclones so they'll be with you in just a few minutes. Then once everyone's here we can make our way up to the ship."

"Understood Rick we'll be waiting for them," Lisa replied before registering the last part of his statement. "There's a ship in orbit? Is it one of ours?"

Rick nodded. "The _Pioneer's_ in orbit I've tried contacting them however there has been no response beyond an automatic acknowledgement from the communications array," he replied, "it's almost like there is nobody aboard her, which like this entire situation doesn't make any sense at all."

"No it doesn't," Lisa agreed instantly feeling more than a small amount of concern about the SDF-3, and that fact that there appeared to be nobody aboard her. As Rick had said the situation made absolutely no sense at all but then neither had their whole night so far. "Hopefully we'll be able to get some answers soon."

"We can but hope," Rick answered. "I better go finish getting these fighters ready to launch for when everyone's here. See you in a few minutes, Hunter out." Rick's image disappeared as he closed the channel from his end allowing Lisa to lower her arm.

"What are Cyclones," Roy asked curious as he naturally didn't recognise the name.

"They're a type of infantry mecha that's supposed to have similar mechamorphic abilities as veritech fighters do only switching between a motorcycle and a suit of powered combat armour instead of the three modes of a veritech," Max explained. "They're still experimental right now, or rather they are in our time. Given Rick said production model the ones coming for us, along with their riders, are likely from a point further down the timeline. Just like Commander Fokker here is from an earlier point in the timeline."

"They sound cool," Roy commented already itching to try one out. He wondered if you needed specialist training to use one in the same way that you did a veritech fighter.

"Your not going to find out how cool they are, whatever they are," a voice with a distinct cockney accent said from behind them making them all spin around. To come face to face with a tall platinum blond haired man, a few more men all dressed in dark clothing and a host of the little aliens/demons they'd all seen earlier stood around him. "I'm going to give you one chance," the man said grinning in an evil fashion. "Surrender her," he gestured to Lisa, "to me and I might let the other two of you go alive."

"I don't think so," Lisa replied drawing her SAL-9 sidearm, aware that Max was doing the same while Roy pulled out a semi-automatic hand gun.

The man chuckled. "Aren't you forgetting something, Slayer," he asked with an amused smirk on his face, "bullets can't hurt vampires."

_There's that name again,_ Lisa though, _why do people keep referring to me as Slayer?_ She smirked back regardless. "Who says this fires bullets," she replied before snapping the pistol up and firing a laser blast at the closest of the men. The man shrieked inhumanly as the beam instantly set skin and clothing on fire, before crumpling into a smouldering pile of dust on the floor.

"You were saying," Lisa asked smirking at the gobsmacked platinum blond. A blond who shook himself, throwing off his surprise at seeing a real life directed energy weapon in action, before snarling as his features shifted and changed assuming the same distorted inhuman look as the three beings she'd encountered earlier.

"Get them," Spike yelled at the small posse of minions he'd assembled. Lisa, Max and Roy braced themselves as the hoard of creatures roared a variety of battle cries.

Then began to charge…

…a second before a bright whitish pink ellipsoid slammed right into the front of them and detonated, the energy of the plasma annihilation disc vaporising many of the onrushing creatures while the concussion wave of the blast sent the remainder sprawling. A moment later an enormous pink and purple mecha of Invid design – though the exactly model was unfamiliar – landed right in front of them. For something so massive it had moved with an admirable stealth as none of them had heard or seen it – till it fired that annihilation disc.

"What the hell," Max exclaimed shocked that an Invid had apparently come to their rescue as from his perspective he'd been fighting them a few days ago. Though this particularly Invid mecha did look different to the ones fielded by the Regents forces, sleeker and more advanced while still being clearly of Invid design and manufacture. _Maybe it belongs to the faction of Invid aligned to the Regis,_ he thought as the mecha pointed one arm – and the heavy plasma cannon mounted their at the remaining creatures, including the platinum blond who'd first threatened them – in clear warning.

They took the hint and immediately scrambled away fleeing the Invid battloid and its deadly arsenal of weaponry. Slowly the mecha turned towards them.

"What the hell is that," Roy asked.

"An Invid battloid though I'm not sure what model it is," Lisa admitted cautiously watching the alien mecha for any sign it was going to attack them. At this close a range they'd have no chance of surviving should the mecha's pilot decide to shoot at them.

The shot never came.

Instead a yellow streak of light emerged from the centre of the mecha and came down to street level – before with a flash turning into a young woman, a woman with oddly styled light green hair, purple coloured eyes and wearing a form fitting purple and black jumpsuit. "Who are you," she asked.

"I am Sera, daughter of the Regis and Princess of the Invid," the young human-looking woman replied.

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "You don't look like any Invid we've encountered before," she commented prompting a puzzled frown from Sera. But only for a moment before she chuckled as she realised what the human woman – in older RDF uniform design – was getting at. She was obviously from the expeditionary forces that had engaged her people in combat over Tirol, Praxis, Kabarra and a dozen other worlds. The Invid form they would have therefore most encountered would be their stage three and stage four forms i.e. a vaguely slug-like humanoid creature. They wouldn't have encountered Invid transmuted to human form by the Regis – especially if her royal command battloids sensors were correct and they were out of their time.

"Understandable. The Regis only recently began transmutation of our people into a human-like form," she explained, while inwardly already beginning to plan how she could use this to improve things for Humans and Invid alike.

If she was stuck here in this planets past maybe she could help build a bridge between their two races, a bridge which would hopefully prevent them making the same mistakes they did last time. With the biggest of said mistakes being the invasion and conquest of this planet and a people who – despite looking a lot like the hated Tirolians due to the fact that they were apparently genetic cousins to one another – had never intended aggression towards the Invid and never would have harmed them if a) the Regent hadn't opened fire on them without warning or provocation and b) if the Regis hadn't led a full on invasion of their homeworld, an invasion the Regis herself had ultimately considered to be the error it was. An error she'd done her best to correct by returning the planet to its rightful inhabitants and destroying the neutron-s missiles as she and the vast majority of the Invid left. Only her sister Ariel and a few other human-form Invid remaining behind for their own reasons.

"You can put those away," she added gesturing at the pistols the three Humans were holding, two of whom were clearly energy sidearms – she could clearly sense the micro protoculture cells powering them – the other an unfamiliar design. "I am not going to hurt you," she continued as she sensed then heard some Cyclones approaching.

That did send a shiver of unease down her spine as while her battloid was powerful she couldn't hope to fight off a Cycloner assault by herself if they were ordered to attack her. Especially as they wouldn't hesitate to attack from multiple directions at once and it only required one good hit in the wrong place to turn her battloid to scrap. After a moment the Cyclones she'd been hearing and sensing – or rather she'd been sensing their protoculture fuel cells – came into this street.

And Sera felt herself relax somewhat as she recognised them. The three Cyclones approached and came to a halt, before the leader hopped off his bike. Removing the helmet of his CVR-3 armour in the process revealing the familiar dark blue hair and chiselled features of Scott Bernard.

"Sera?" Scott queried in surprise at seeing her, "how did you get here?"

"I suspect the same way that you did," Sera answered, "one minute I was watching Mother Regis leave Earth with my brethren the next I'm here. Is Lancer with you as he'd vanished when I woke up here?"

"No we can't find him either nor Lunk and Annie," Rand spoke up from the back of his Cyclone, "though your sister's here we left her back with the fighters."

"Ariel's here!" Sera exclaimed feeling a profound sense of relief as while it wasn't her beloved Lancer having Ariel here would at least meant she had some family – and wasn't that a novel idea that had, along with the ability to feel complex emotions and capacity for fully independent thought, come with her transmutation to a human form – around her.

"Yes," Scott confirmed.

"Ugh confused," Lisa said, "who are you? And who is Ariel?"

Rand sighed. "Sheesh doesn't anyone know who anyone is tonight?" he moaned.

"Well if we're all from different points in the timeline it would make sense that we don't all recognise each other," Rook pointed out slightly amused by her somewhat boyfriends antics.

"Which is something that can be easily remedied," Roy commented getting everyone's attention. Prompting a few mildly sheepish looks followed by a short round of introductions. "Now that that's out of the way maybe we should resume heading to the rendezvous point? And then make our way up to the ship."

"Roy's right we should," Lisa agreed. "You and Rick both mentioned fighters, Rand. How many are there and what kind are they?"

"There are six of them," Scott answered before Rand could. "Six Alpha's all with docked Beta's. And it's downright bizarre all the flight data and performance logs are blank. It's literally like they've just come off the production lines."

"Strange," Lisa commented, "hopefully we will soon get some answers about what's going on around here."

"This ship you are talking about where is it?" Sera asked "and which ship is it?"

"It's the SDF-3," Scott answered, "she's in a geostationary orbit over the town but there doesn't appear to be anybody aboard her, or at least nobody capable of answering Admiral Hunter's hails."

Sera frowned slightly, that was very strange indeed. "My battloid is fully capable of exo-atmospheric flight," she said, "I could go on ahead of you and attempt to reconnoitre the ships situation."

"That sounds like a good idea," Lisa agreed, "just be careful as even if there is nobody aboard the ships point defence systems might be operating on automatic. If they are and they detect that you're an Invid they'll blow you out of the sky."

"I'll be careful," Sera assured her even as she hoped the point defences were off as she didn't relish trying to dodge volleys of pulsed laser bolts from the SDF-3's defensive weapons emplacements, before teleporting herself back inside her royal command battloid.

"You all better get on," Scott said blinking as Sera teleported herself back aboard her battloid. _I'm still not used to seeing that,_ he thought even though he'd seen Ariel do it a few times recently. He slipped his helmet back on and climbed back aboard his Cyclone.

"Agreed," Lisa replied, "Max you go with Rook, Roy with Rand and I'll go with Commander Bernard."

"Alright Lisa," Roy and Max agreed before jogging off to join their respective rides. Lisa for her part walked over to Scott's and climbed on behind him, feeling the young man stiffen slightly in nerves at who his passenger was.

"Relax commander I don't bite," she said amused. _Well often anyway,_ she thought recalling some of the rows she'd had with Rick when he'd been this guy's age _only if you annoy me._

"Sorry ma'am," Scott answered his cheeks colouring slightly in embarrassment before he made himself calm down "everybody ready?"

"Ready here, Scott," Rand replied a comment echoed half a second later by Rook.

"Alright then," Scott answered starting the engine on the Cyclone and bringing the machine around so they were facing back in the direction they'd come from. Rand and Rook did the same with their own machines and together the three Cyclones began making their way back towards where Rick and Minmei were waiting with the veritechs. A moment later they heard a roar behind them as Sera fired her battloid's thrusters, sending the mecha shooting up into the sky aiming for space.

* * *

**A Few Minutes Later**

The six Alpha/Beta combined fighters were all humming and pulsing with power as the three Cyclones and the six people riding them pulled into the currently deserted building site. Rick having busily moved between them bringing there flight systems fully online – or rather moving between the Alpha's bringing their systems online which had automatically caused the docked Beta's to power up as well – ready for the journey to orbit while he'd been waiting for them. The hum of multiple protoculture-fuelled engines filling the site with a constant rumble, a rumble that seemed to make the very air itself vibrate with power.

"Wow," Roy breathed climbing off the back of Rook's Cyclone gazing at the veritechs in awe. He could clearly see the lineage of the VF-1 Valkyrie in these fighters but these were sleeker and more elegant, obviously much more advanced. A slow smile made its way across his face as he couldn't wait to get behind the controls of one of these beauties and see just what it could do. His eyes slowly scanned the closest fighter noticing everything especially how it seemed to be two fighters in one. He could clearly see where the front two fifths of the fighter was joined to the rest. He could also make out multiple missile hatches and felt himself start to drool as he imagined the firepower these things must have.

A gasp came from somewhere off to his right. Jolted out of his contemplation of the fighter he looked in the direction the gasp had come from…

…and froze.

Standing there was Rick. He was dressed in a white and red uniform of the same style as Lisa and Max's though his had a high collared black jacket-like cloak over the top. Like Lisa's his uniform had the rank stars of an admiral albeit a vice admiral. He noticed two things immediately first was Rick had aged quite well in comparison to the last time he'd seen him, despite appearing to be in his early thirties he looked almost the same though his features were slightly sharper, the second was the look Rick was giving him – the look like someone who'd seen a ghost.

For a timeless moment they just stood there gazing at one another, the world around them seeming having faded away to nothing leaving just the two of them standing there in space. Then Rick just moved, and suddenly Roy found himself pulled into a desperate hug. And it was then that he truly accepted that in the time Rick, Lisa and Max were from that he was dead. He could feel the desperation and need to confirm that he was really here, that he wasn't a ghost or some other such apparition, in the way Rick was holding him.

He found he couldn't say anything – what did you say, what could you say in this kind of situation – so he did the only thing he could. He just hugged Rick right back. After a few moments he felt Rick begin to pull back. He allowed him to and for a few timeless moments their eyes met, Rick's eyes – shining with unshed tears – communicating without needing words that the two of them needed to talk later. Roy nodded in agreement then watched as a very military mask slid over his brother in everything but blood's face. The senior officer he'd apparently become taking over. He couldn't help but feel a sense of both wonderment and pride at that, he'd known Rick would go far in the RDF, he was a good pilot and an even better squadron leader, but to get that far so young was amazing.

Lisa choose that moment to speak, seeing herself Rick slipping into full military mode so the emotions stirred up by seeing Roy again wouldn't impair his performance during the current mystery they were facing. She couldn't help but be extremely proud of him and how he'd changed from the arrogant, cocky young adult she'd first met into a confident and thoughtful man – though there were times some of the old pilot's attitude showed and Rick still liked to fly a veritech whenever his duties permitted him to. Indeed when going planet side he preferred to take a veritech instead of a shuttle whenever possible. Which had saved his life a few times recently when marauding Invid loyal to the Regent had tried to kill him – only to find out just why Rick was still considered to be, next to Max and Miriya Sterling, one of the finest combat pilots in the RDF.

"Is everyone here now," she asked.

"Not quite, Lisa," Rick replied checking his watch/wrist computer which still showed one transponder approaching. In fact whoever it was they were walking around the perimeter of the building site probably looking for a way in. "The last contact's outside trying to find a way in here."

"Sir, Ma'am do you want me to go get him," Scott asked.

"If you would, Commander," Lisa replied.

Scott nodded and hopped back onto his Cyclone from where he'd been quietly talking to Ariel, filling her in on Sera's presence and where she'd gone, before driving off into the darkness of the night. After a couple of minutes he returned – with Doctor Emil Lang sat on the back of the transformable, armed motorcycle.

"Doctor Lang," Lisa said in greeting as Scott brought his Cyclone to a stop and got off. "It's good to see you despite the situation were in."

"It's good to see you too, Lisa," Lang replied in his normal thick German accent. "Do you know what's going on by any chance? As my last memory before waking up here was talking with Cabell and Rem about the exact physics of hyperspace folding."

"We all appear to have become caught up in a space-time distortion of some kind," Lisa replied before quickly and concisely filling the German genius who understood more about robotechnology than any other human alive on what they knew so far. And the plan to take the fighters up to the orbiting, seemingly abandoned, SDF-3.

"I see that does seem like a logical course of action to take," Lang agreed. "The Beta fighters should be able to accommodate all of us who aren't pilots. But we might have to leave the Cyclones behind."

"No need for that, doc," Rand broke in prompting everyone to look over. To see the three Cyclone riders had somehow been able to collapse their machines down into easy to transport cubes. At the looks they were getting Scott explained.

"In our time all veritechs carry Cyclones as emergency vehicles in the event a pilot gets shot down," he said with a smile even as he squatted down and picked his up. "They're designed to fold up like this to fit into the small cargo compartment of the Alpha fighter."

"Ah so we did work that little problem out then," Lang mused aloud as one of the things they wanted to include in the Cyclone, which the Tornado couldn't do, was the ability to compact down easily for just the purpose Scott had said about. But the team in charge of designing that particular ability was running into a few problems getting it to work properly as while the idea was simple the actual application was anything but – it was testing their skills with robotechnology to the limits in their attempts to solve the problem.

"Looks like it," Lisa agreed. "Alright you three load those into the cargo compartments of three of the Alpha's. Then we'll head up to the ship."

"Understood ma'am," Scott replied.

"In the meantime the rest of us should get aboard, I already sent Minmei to sit down in the back of the lead fighters Beta," Rick said. Lisa nodded in agreement seeing the sense in that as well as in Rick sending Minmei into the Beta where she'd be safe. Not for the first time she was glad the love triangle between the three of them had been resolved, it had enabled her to start a friendship with the singer. Which had been somewhat of an eye opening experience for both of them.

Immediately after she nodded Rick, Roy and Max headed for the cockpits of three of the Alpha fighters, hopping in with ease before strapping themselves into the seats. Roy for his part looking curiously at the slight changes made to the cockpit layout in relation to the VF-1 Valkyrie. The controls looked more or less the same though the overcomplicated mode-switch panel had changed to a single three position throttle-like lever. There were also fewer manual switches and dials with instead the functions being displayed on the touch screen displays, in addition the throttle markings indicated that the Alpha had VTOL capability that unlike the Valkyrie wasn't dependent on partially shifting the fighter to guardian mode to use. _Nice,_ he thought as he finished familiarising himself with the new control layout.

"Oh this is going to be a joy to fly," he said softly as he closed the cockpit canopy. Immediately it locked into place and sealed with a green light appearing on one of the panels showing a good seal. He carefully checked all his controls for functionality and was satisfied that they were all working as they should, before sitting back to wait for the order to take off.

He didn't have to wait long as Rick's face abruptly appeared on the comm. screen. "All right everyone we're ready," he ordered slipping into the squadron leader role with an effortless ease that made Roy smile and once more feel more than a small sliver of pride in how his adoptive younger sibling had turned out. "Engage your VTOL jets until we reach two thousand feet then set course for the SDF-3 and engage main drives."

"Understood, little brother," Roy replied a slight smirk on his face before he moved the throttle into the VTOL position, while hearing the other pilots also acknowledging the order albeit a bit more formally than he had in all but two cases.

Immediately a rumble filled the fighter as on the underside of the paired Alpha/Beta fighter VTOL jets burst into life with a flare of energy. Pulling back on the control column slightly Roy felt as much as saw the fighter beginning to slowly, but with increasing speed, begin to rise into the night sky. He kept his eyes firmly on the altitude indicator as the fighter ascended higher and higher.

In no time at all he reached two thousand feet. Pulling back on the control column more he brought the nose up, before sliding the throttle forward to max power. Instantly G forces pulled him back against the seat as with a flare of brilliant light the main engines to the docked/slaved Beta fighter burst into life. The currently merged fighter shot forward like a spooked rabbit, causing a sonic boom to echo across Sunnydale as its speed quickly passing Mach 1 and continued to both accelerate and climb.

All around him the other fighters were performing the exact same manoeuvre at the same rate of speed and incredible acceleration. All six Alpha/Beta combined fighters heading towards orbit, the seemingly abandoned SDF-3…

…and unknowing an encounter with a destiny greater than any they had face before.

* * *

Authors Notes: I was originally going to have SG-1 make an appearance in this chapter but the events in Sunnydale kind of took on a life of their own, before I knew it I had 6656 words worth, so I decided to leave them out until the next chapter.

Before anyone asks about the three vampires that attacked Lisa/Buffy at the start of the chapter I added them as I've always thought it odd that of all the bloodsuckers in Sunnydale only Spike came out to investigate the chaos visited on the town – and the Scoobies – by Ethan Rayne and try to take advantage of it to kill the affected Slayer. So I changed it I hope no one minds.

As for the effects of lasers on vampires, when the one child/demon Rick hit in the previous chapter was only mildly burned and knocked on its ass, I would ask everyone to bear in mind that Buffy vampires are canonically extremely flammable. As such the intense heat of a laser beam would be more than enough to set them aflame.


End file.
